Matric results 2016: Maths and science suffers

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has revealed that the matric class of 2016 saw a 72.5% pass rate – up from 70‚7% in the previous year.

When progressed learners (those that have failed Grade 11 more than once) are excluded, the pass rate is 76.2% from a previous figure of 74%.

Speaking at Vodaworld in Midrand, Johannesburg also revealed the surprise news that the Free State had surpassed the Western Cape as the best performing province in the country with a pass rate of 88.2%‚ up from 81.6% in 2015. Meanwhile the Western Cape finished in a close second with 85.9%‚ improving from 84.7% in 2015.

While there has been a clear statistical increase across most of the country, Chief Director for Public Exams Rufus Poliah revealed that students that excelled in “gateway subjects” maths and science were much lower than expected.

In science‚ 3.7% of pupils who wrote the paper‚ a total of 7,043‚ received a distinction.

In maths‚ 3% or 8,070 pupils who wrote the paper‚ received a distinction.

Of those students that wrote maths literacy only 1.2% of those who wrote received a distinction.

Average results for the two subjects increased marginally compared to 2015, increasing from 49.1% in 2015 to 51.1% in maths and from 58.6% to 62% in physical science.

By comparison, 5.1% of accounting students received a distinction. For Afrikaans first language, 7.4% received a distinction while 1.2% of English students received a distinction.